Lancaster - International Bomber Command Centre

A pilot’s story – One hell of a bombing run

Then I had to dodge under another Lancaster coming from our port side, looking up into its yawning bomb-bay with its rows of 500lb bombs and a cookie.

Flying Officer Roy Yule DFC – a Lancaster pilot and captain on No 626 Squadron based at RAF Wickenby, Lincs during 1945.

‘On February 7th 1945 we were briefed for a night raid on Kleve. This operation was to prepare the way for the attack by 15th Scottish Division across the German frontier near Reischwald. We took off at 7pm and at 10pm approached the target at 10,000 feet. There was a layer of thin cloud at 5,000 feet and we clearly heard the Master Bomber, who was circling in a Mosquito at 3,000 feet, ordering the main force to come below cloud. To comply with his orders, I closed the throttles and put the aircraft into a dive, getting under the cloud and levelling off at 4,000 feet. This turned out to be one hell of a dangerous bombing run. Over half the main force did not come below cloud but bombed through it on the fires and flares that could be seen through the thin layer.

The one hundred and forty or so Lancaster pilots that did obey the Master Bomber converged onto the tight bunch of target markers. Stan, the bomb aimer, gave “Bomb-doors open”, and we heard the clear, casual voice of the Master Bomber, “Bomb to starboard of the red Target Indicators”. Then I had to dodge under another Lancaster coming from our port side, looking up into its yawning bomb bay with its rows of 500lb bombs and a cookie. I jabbed the left rudder to slide clear of it. Stan, who could not see the other Lanc, had started his run-up patter giving me “Right,” and shouted agitatedly, “Right, not bloody left!”

The scene ahead was fantastic. Red and yellow tracer shells were crisscrossing from the flak batteries outside the town. They seemed to be coming from eight different positions and looked like 20 mm and 37 mm, which are nasty blighters at the height we were at. Strings of bombs were falling through the cloud from the Lancs above. Flashes from the exploding blockbusters on the ground were blinding. A stricken Lancaster crashed on its run-in blowing up with its full bomb load. Large columns of thick black smoke rose from the town up to 3,000 feet.

Stan gave, “Right, right, steady, bombs away.” then our aircraft was bucking and rearing as the pressure waves hit us. 4,000 feet was reckoned to be the absolute minimum height for dropping a blockbuster. At last we were through the target and turning south over the Rhine and my stomach muscles started to relax.’

We landed back at Wickenby at 42 minutes after midnight. At debriefing, Frank, the mid-upper gunner, said that a string of bombs with a wobbling blockbuster dropped past our starboard tail-plane as our own bombs were leaving.

In memory of Sgt Brian D West

By Janice A Furze

I was a close friend of the Fiancee of Sgt. Brian D west of 106 Squadron based at Metheringham, Lincolnshire. Occasionally my friend talked to me about Brian because I myself was a Private Pilot with a keen interest in aviation history, particularly the Second World War. It was only in recent years, and almost by chance that I learned more about the fate of Brian who was the Flight Engineer, and the crew of R-Robert who set off on the late evening of 7th May 1944 to bomb an ammunition dump near Orleans in France.

The aircraft was skippered by Flying Officer Bartlett, and had survived some punishing trips prior to the final one, in fact they would have been considered ‘old hands’ by newcomers to the Squadron. But the odds were stacked against them. The trip to the Loire Valley to fulfil their mission, which was in preparation for D-Day, should have been ‘a piece of cake’ according to those who later recalled the events of that evening.

The Squadron flew out via Reading crossing the coast at Portland Bill. For some reason they were flying much lower than usual, perhaps to try to avoid enemy radar alerting the night fighters who were stalking the Squadrons and finding the Lancaster’s vulnerable under-belly. A few miles North West of the target the Squadron was intercepted by the dreaded night fighters and three aircraft were shot down. R Robert crashed in flames having lost the tail section, and with the fire raging ordnance began to explode completely burning out the aircraft. The aircraft had crashed into a field near a small village in the Loire Valley, and a villager later wrote a graphic account of the incident. Because of the curfew he was not able to visit the site until the next day. It was clear that the crash was not survivable and he saw the aircrew till lying in and around the aircraft. The next day the airmen were taken to the municipal cemetery at Orleans where they were buried and is the place where they still lie side by side today. The villagers who lived so close to where the crew died erected a memorial to the airman at the local church and over the years remained constant in honouring their memory and keeping in touch with 106 Squadron.

For several days my friend only knew that her Fiancee was ‘Missing’, then a few days later came the official news that he had been killed. I think they were both just 20 years of age. I decided the details of the incident were too horrific to share with her during her life time, but since her passing I thought this was an event which should be recorded in the Memorial archives close to where he served because I am in awe of that Generation and what they achieved. On my friend’s behalf I visited what is left of the aerodrome at Metheringham and placed flowers in Brian’s memory at the Garden of Remembrance by the Museum there. It is a pilgrimage I would recommend to those who cherish the memory of those who gave everything so that we can live the lives we choose in Freedom.

Don Miller , Rear Gunner – Lincolnshire based, Waddington

My uncle Don “Miller” rear gunner, Lincolnshire based, Waddington then Ely, married my English Aunty Joan Willers who lived in one of the 2 remaining houses on great northern terrace lincoln, The new memorial looking over it now.

They moved to canada and brought up 5 sons. Some became pilots.

You may notice on the service log on 15th he bailed out, I believe he said the aircraft then landed back in the UK without the gunners etc? He also talked about the pilot falling out of his seat once during a steep evasive dive. he flew many more missions, a very lucky man indeed.

My Aunt still lives in Canada but sadly Don passed away a few years ago, I believe he made Captain before retiring.

By Jon

TOBIN, Thomas Patrick

Service Numbers: 436106

Enlisted: 7 November 1942, Perth Western Australia Australia

Last Rank: Flying Officer

Last Unit: No. 153 Squadron (RAF)

Born: Kalgoorlie Western Australia Australia, 16 April 1916
Home Town: Port Adelaide, Port Adelaide Enfield, South Australia
Schooling: Christian Brothers College Wakefield Street Adelaide
Occupation: Police Officer, Public Servant

Died: Natural Causes, Scampton England United Kingdom, 7 May 1991, aged 75 years
Cemetery: Not yet discovered

Memorials:

World War 2 Service:

7 Nov 1942: Leading Aircraftman, Empire Air Training Scheme
23 Jul 1943: Sergeant, Empire Air Training Scheme
1 Oct 1944: Flying Officer, No. 153 Squadron (RAF), Air War NW Europe 1939-45

Biography

Flying Officer Thomas (‘Tom’) Patrick TOBIN, RAAF

Tom Tobin was born in Boulder City on the Western Australian goldfields on the 16th April 1916. He moved with his family to Ceduna on the West Coast of SA.
He went to school at Christian Brothers College in Adelaide, leaving at the height of the Depression and returning to the West Coast.

He was 15 years old and living in Ceduna working in Irwin Brothers Grocery store when Jimmy Mollison flew over Ceduna during a round-Australia flight. Tom was on a half day off on a Friday and saw Mollison throw something from his aircraft. It was a rolled up Advertiser newspaper with a request for someone to call Adelaide and advise Mollison’s ETA there. An excited Tom Tobin ran to the Post Office with his message. The Post Master promised to relay the message to Adelaide. Thus began Tom’s desire to fly.

He had applied to join the SA Police as a cadet, and in due course was accepted. He recalls in his memoirs that the cadet scheme was ‘akin to slave labour’ as they were paid very little and required to perform duties pretty much as per those of a sworn officer. The arrangement was that they would be duly attested on attainment of the age of 21.

Tom recalled that he spent most of his pre-war police service in Port towns; Port Pirie, Port Lincoln and Port Adelaide. He was an accomplished boxer by this time and dealing with intoxicated merchant seaman in his various postings figures strongly in his recollections. “Sailing Ships were still common and most of the crews were Swedes and Norwegians. Sober they were no trouble but after months at sea they made the most of their shore leave and influenced by liquor they could be troublesome”. After being involved in a tense stand-off with enraged sailors after one of their number had been locked up, Tom was left to ponder what might have happened. “However the local people were very law abiding so mainly my stay at Port Lincoln was a happy one. The scrapes with the sailors must have tuned me up because when I arrived in Port Adelaide, I won the Police Heavyweight Boxing title.”

In fact he won the Heavyweight boxing title three years iin succession; 1938, 1939 and 1940. The Championship belt is in the SA Police Headquarters building in Wakefield Street to this day.

When war broke out, Tom was stationed at Port Adelaide. He sought permission to enlist in the RAAF, and then began a long and torturous process to do so. Police officers were classified as a ‘protected occupation’, governed by the Man Power Act. He had managed to get offside with the Police Commissioner, the legendary Brigadier Ray Leane (/explore/people/378781), a hero of WW 1. Ray Leane had allowed his own sons to enlist, but not Police Constable Tom Tobin, nor his brother Steve. Tom was therefore unable to enlist – at least in South Australia. Tom eventually ‘went AWL’ from the SA Police and went to Perth in his native Western Australia in order to enlist in the RAAF. He only just managed to evade a warrant for his apprehension, issued by the SA Police. His brother Steve remained in SA and stayed in his role as a police officer, eventually rising to the rank of Assistant Commissioner. Tom, however, was now on a different trajectory.

Thanks to a sympathetic Recruiting Officer and an official in the Man Power Branch, Tom managed to slip through the cracks and on the 7th November 1942, he was enlisted into the RAAF.

He was initially selected for pilot training and with the rank of Leading Aircraftsman, was posted to No 9 Elementary Flying Training School at Cunderdin in WA, No 33 Course. Here he learned to fly on DH 82 Tiger Moth aircraft from Feb 12 1943. He flew his first solo sortie on 23 March 1943, a signature point in every pilot’s career. By 7 April 1943 he had accumulated 57 hours of which 26 were solo, and 3 hours of night flying. He was rated an ‘Average’ pilot. during basic flying training. He was assigned to 4 Service Flying Training School, at Geraldton in WA, having been selected for multi-engine training on the Avro Anson. By the end of July 1943, he had accumulated 194 hours flying time. His rating of Good Average in bombing probably set in train the next course of events.

During this time, on the 5th July 1943 in the middle of winter, he was involved in an incident in an Anson, flying as second pilot on a cross country night navigation flight. Bad weather engulfed their aircraft and he and his colleague began debating their options. They eventually spotted a rail car through the gloom which had stopped with its headlight on, realising they were in trouble. There was a cleared paddock adjacent to the rail lines and Tom took control of the aircraft and put it down in a ploughed field, wheels up. It turned out they landed in one of a very few suitable spots for miles around with only 12 gallons of fuel left in the tank. The Anson was repaired in situ and flown out some days later.

On the 27th July 1943, Tom Tobin was awarded his wings and promoted to Sergeant.

After a short period of pre-embarkation leave, he embarked on the 30 August 1943 on the SS America, a fast liner of 35,000 tons. Their destination was the USA running unescorted to San Francisco. From there, travelling by train from West to East they took in the scenery in relative comfort. A brief stay of leave in Boston enabled him to make acquaintance with three aunts who lived near Bangor.

On the 3rd of October 1943 then boarded the SS Aquitania to cross the Atlantic, zig zagging to avoid German U Boats..

In the UK at No 29 EFTS it was back to basics albeit at an Advanced Flying School where he was once again flying the DH82 Tiger Moth. Then it was on to RAF Croughton and conversion and training on a series of training aircraft including the twin-engine Airspeed Oxfords and an emphasis on navigation and night flying operations. By the end of May 1944 it was on to the next stage – conversion to the Vickers Wellington twin-engine medium bomber. This was followed by the four-engine Handley Page Halifax bomber at the Heavy Conversion Unit Sandtoft.

Tom was posted to 153 Squadron RAF which had formerly been a night fighter squadron, but was being reformed as a Heavy Bomber squadron equipped with the legendary Avro Lancaster. Like most RAF Squadrons at the time, its composition reflected the diversity of nations in the British Empire, with Australians, Canadians and other Commonwealth nationalities in its ranks. Tom was among the first aircrew and relatively few Australians to join the squadron when it reformed in October 1944, equipped with Lancaster Mk III heavy bombers.

He ‘crewed- up’ with the men with whom he would fly for the rest of the war.

– Tom Tobin (Aus) – Pilot

– F/Sgt Bob Muggleton (UK) – Bomb AimerF/Sgt Peter ‘ Paddy’ Tilson (NI) – Navigator
– F/Sgt Peter Rollason (Aus) – Wireless Operator
– F/Sgt Red Maloney (Can) – Mid Upper gunner
– Sgt Bill ‘Yorky’ Dolling (UK) – Rear gunner
– Sgt Peter ‘Jock’ Smart (Scot) – Flight Engineer

He flew his first familiarisation mission as a second pilot with another crew, to Essen. His log book then begins a pattern of recording the eventual fate of the tail numbers of each aircraft in which he flew. The first training flights he made with his crew were in aircraft that were subsequently lost. His log makes grim reading; a mid air collision, ‘did not return’, shot down by Ju 88 fighter attack (6 bailed out) and ‘wrecked’ accounting for the first four aircraft

Fourteen of his missions were flown in ‘W for Willie’ tail number 642. In an incident that goes someway to explain the reputation for superstition that characterised flight crews, on the evening of 16/17th March another crew took their aircraft while they were stood down. It was lost with all on board. They completed their tour in W1 RF 205, a replacement for their much loved W 642.

Tom and his crew went on to fly a full Tour of 30 operational missions with 153 Squadron, which are exquisitely described in his log book and a personal memoir. He and his crew completed their tour of duty just before the end of the war. He had accumulated 204 operational hours and another 56 hours training with 153 squadron, giving him a total of 705 hours 20 minutes flying time in all. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC).

His trials and tribulations with his employer, left behind when he went AWL from the SA Police in order to enlist, didn’t end there. On return to Australia, and resumption of duty with the SA Police, the award of his DFC was gazetted and he was scheduled to attend Government House in Adelaide for his investiture. However the SA Police would not grant him leave to do so. This resulted in a furore in the Press and Tom was duly granted leave. However not long after this Tom resigned from the SA Police and gained employment with the Commonwealth Department of Immigration, where he remained until his eventual retirement many years later.

After nearly 30 years, Tom began to pick up the threads of the contacts with his time with 153 Squadron. In 1972 he began actively seeking out his former colleagues and began travelling to do so. He also corresponded with former squadron crew mates and historians. He even corresponded with a German man researching one of the raids flown against his home town of Ludwighshafen on which Tom flew. He was active in the 153 Squadron association attending a number of reunions. It was on one of these in 1991 that he suffered a fatal heart attack.

Tom was an active member of the Royal Australian Air Force Association at Mitcham sub-branch. He figures strongly in the 153 Squadron website. At well over 6 feet tall he was not inconspicuous and was known by the nickname “Tiny” Tobin. He was survived by his wife Pat and only daughter Jane, her husband Denis and grandchildren Andrea and Heath. He is fondly remembered as a wonderful man and a ‘great bloke’.

His log book and memoir are a wonderful legacy. It has been my pleasure to write this up – these men were indeed part of the ‘greatest generation’.

Medals:

– Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC)
– France and Germany Star
– 1939-45 Star
– Defence Medal
– British War Medal 1939-45
– Australian War Medal 1939-45

Credit: Steve Larkins July 2013

The Dresden Raid February 1945

Tom Tobin’s 153 Squadron was part of what was to become, after the war, a controversial raid on the old city of Dresden. This is extracted from the 153 Squadron Website.

On 13th February, 15 aircraft were sent to Dresden. Although afterwards it became the subject of considerable and continuing debate, as far as the crews were concerned this was just another attack in aid of the Russian armies, on which (because of the distance involved), only a comparatively small bomb load could be carried.
Thus each crew took 1 x 2,000lb bomb plus 1,800 incendiaries. In clear weather and aided by gale force westerly winds, it took just over four hours to reach and bomb the target.

There could be no argument over the effectiveness of the attack – a massive firestorm (more intensive than that on Hamburg in 1943) swept the city, and could be seen from 100 miles by crews on their 650-mile homeward journeys.

They had plenty of time to watch, because there were now fighting against the same fearsome gales that had carried them so swiftly on the outward leg. Although benefiting from a much-reduced all-up weight, it took well over five hours of juggling of the fuel valves by anxious F/Engineers to struggle home.

Many made unscheduled landings to re-fuel: others reached Scampton with nearly dry tanks.

Nearly home but with fuel dangerously low Tom Tobin and his Flight Engineer Jock Smart shut down the two outer engines to conserve fuel. With no bombs and little fuel the Lancaster could easily fly on just two engines. So they feathered the props, and struggled on. On approaching Scampton and gaining a clearance to land he declined the instruction to complete the customary circuit and flew straight in to land – which was just as well, considering he was literally ‘running on empty’.

(A grim PostScript to mull over – of the 105-crew members from 153 Squadron who attacked Dresden and returned unscathed, only 66 survived the war – which finished just two months later. 39 died in subsequent operations)

Tom Tobin’s Log Book Report

Tom kept an exquisitely detailed log book of his flying career, together with memorabilia such as maps, photographs and the like.

His log book is now in the possession of his daughter, Jane. He recorded in great detail and in very fine neat hand writing every mission he flew.

He also kept track of the tail numbers of the aircraft he flew and their eventual fate. Lancaster 642 was the aircraft in which he flew most of his missions.

One evening in March 1945, he and his crew were due to fly but his navigator called in sick and rather than split the crew, they were stood down and another crew took 642. It didn’t return. No wonder flight crews had a reputation for being superstitious.

He is mentioned repeatedly in the 153 Squadron website as one of the characters (and survivors) of the Squadron.

At war’s end his grateful crew (he had brought them home safely 30 times) presented him with a beautiful scale replica of their aircraft. On its base is inscribed the targets of the 30 missions he ‘skippered’. It is now in the possession of his grandson Heath Eblen.

https://rslvirtualwarmemorial.org.au/explore/people/48546

*All information provided by Jane Eblen, Tom’s daughter.

This is the poem I wrote for Dad:

Excuse me if I cry, but I will miss you as time goes by,
You suffered pain, but never complained,
Your conscience heavy because of many,
You flew 30 missions,
But returned with God’s permission,
And now your ashes shall be scattered alongside the great Lancaster
I could not say good bye, I love you Dad, Jane

According to my Dad’s wishes I spread his ashes on Scampton Airport in May 1991 accompanied by his brother Steve Tobin, the then Commissioner of Police in South Australia.

Jane Eblen

Robert Jay – Flight Engineer. No.75 (NZ) Squadron

*My dad was a Lancaster bomber flight engineer with No.75(NZ) Squadron during WW2 and as a child growing up in the 1950s I never tired of asking him about his experiences. I wanted to know where in the aircraft he sat, what his role was, what flak was like and even how aircraft were able to fly. By the time I left primary school my interest had started to wane and when he died in 1974 at the age of just 55 I thought that any chance of finding out more about his experiences was lost. I was left with a handful of photographs, his log book and the name of his pilot, Bill Mallon.

In the spring of 2012 I acquired Bob’s service record and decided to document as much as I could of his war-time experiences so that his grandchildren, who never met him and for whom the Second World War was ancient history, could learn about this momentous part of his life.

What was intended to be a single-entry blog for the benefit of close family now has 28 chapters, 16 appendices and more than 50,000 words and has unearthed incredible stories of courage, sacrifice and disappointment.

Background

Robert Alfred Jay, the youngest of three children, was born on the 3rd April, 1919, 6 months before his dad was demobbed after 4 years in the army and just 2 months before Alcock and Brown’s historic trans-Atlantic flight.

He left school shortly after his 14th birthday and on the 23rd April 1933 he started a seven year apprenticeship with Grimsby Motors. He was released a year early, nine days after his 20th birthday, on the 12th April 1939 as a fully qualified motor mechanic and joined the local fire brigade.

3rd June 1939

Along with all young men of 20 and 21 Bob had to register at the local Ministry of Labour office under the terms of the Military Training Act (1939). This act, passed an the 26th May 1939 in the face of imminent conflict in Europe, required all men born between 4th June 1918 and 3rd June 1919 to register, after which they were to be called up for 6 month’s full-time military training, and then transferred to the Reserve. It is not hard to imagine how his parents would have felt having lived through the horrors of the ‘Great War’.

To ensure that the call up did not take men away from vital industries and services the Government introduced a “Schedule of Reserved Occupations” – men meeting the age criteria laid out in the schedule were “reserved in their present occupation”. As a full-time fireman Bob met the criteria in the schedule and remained in civil life.

1939-42

Being politically aware Bob had understood the threat posed by fascism since before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and had followed closely the rise of Hitler in Germany during the 1930s. It was inevitable that he would join the armed forces and play his part at some stage. By 1942 German troops had advanced as far as Stalingrad, the mass murder of Jews was well under way and the Japanese were overwhelming large areas in the Far East. There was wide-spread feeling in Britain that the fight should be taken to the enemy in Europe, rather than appearing to await the outcome of the struggle between Germany and the Soviet Union, and Bob probably saw joining Bomber Command as the way to do this – and maybe he found the prospect of flying quite appealing too.

30th September 1942

As the war progressed there was an increasing need for men and women to join the armed forces and Bob volunteered to join the RAFVR (Volunteer Reserve). He was instructed to attend RAF Padgate, near Warrington, where he was assessed and interviewed by No. 10 A.C.S.B. (Aviation Candidate Selection Board). His service record shows that at the end of the process he was “Not recommended for aircrew duties”, a decision generally made for ‘aptitude, educational or medical’ reasons. He therefore remained in civil life.

The reason for this recommendation does not appear on his record of service but the family story is that it was because of an elevated temperature, something he had always had, but we will never know for sure. Bob did talk about his lack of mathematical skill preventing him from becoming a pilot, something he was keen to do, and this must have been part of the reason he was so desperate for his children to do well at school. Although the majority of pilots (and navigators and bomb aimers) were drawn from ex-grammar school and university volunteers, I recently met the son of a pilot whose father had a similar background to Bob, i.e., left school at 14 and completed a trade apprenticeship.

28th July 1943

Undeterred, Bob reapplied ten months later and was instructed to attend RAF Doncaster where he was assessed and interviewed again, this time by No. 1 A.C.S.B. He was successful and was “recommended for training as a Flight Engineer”. He was instructed to continue in civil life until further notice.

2nd/3rd September 1943

A few weeks later he was instructed to return to RAF Doncaster for two day’s assessment, which included a medical which he passed with ‘medical category grade 1’. He was enlisted ‘D.P.E.’ (for the ‘Duration of Present Emergency’) and ‘mustered’ as ACH/F.Eng (Aircrafthand/Flight Engineer) with the rank of Aircraftsman Second Class (AC2) grade A (the lowest grade).

Having sworn his allegiance to King and Country he was issued with service number 1596172, placed on reserve and once again instructed to return to civil life until further notice.

He later received a letter from the Air Ministry to welcome him into the R.A.F. and advise him on preparation for his ‘Air Force career’.

17th January 1944

The call-up came in the New Year and on the 17th of January 1943 he reported for five weeks basic training at No.3 A.C.R.C. (Aircrew Receiving Centre) at RAF Regent’s Park in London. In the first few days he would have:

A regulation hair cut
A thorough dental check, at which time he lost most of his top teeth
Received inoculations against diphtheria and typhoid – it seems he missed out on the smallpox inoculation normally given at this stage
Received basic RAF kit and ‘Service Dress’ uniform, commonly referred to as “Best Blues”, including the white cap insert, clearly visible later on his wedding pictures, that identified him as trainee aircrew.

He would have been instructed to mark every item of kit with his service number and be expected to keep every item spotlessly clean in readiness for regular inspection.

Over the next few weeks he faced a rigorous daily routine of fatigues, inspections, training drills, lectures and assessments. I can’t imagine Bob taking to this very well! As an AC2 (grade A), Trade Group V (Aircrafthand/Flight Engineer) his pay was 3 shillings per day plus sixpence per day war pay – considerably less than his pay as a fireman but he did not, of course, have to pay for his upkeep. He would collect his pay at the fortnightly pay parade.

The piece of kit that would have been the starkest reminder of the perilous nature of the task ahead was the pair of identity discs. Manufactured from fire-resistant material and with the airman’s religion clearly punched between his service number and name, none of the recruits could have been in any doubt why they had to wear these once they were flying.

26th February 1944

Having completed the first stage of his training Bob was then posted to No. 7 I.T.W. (Initial Training Wing) at RAF Newquay, in Cornwall. The purpose of this training was to ‘lay a foundation of discipline, physical fitness and mental alertness’ and provide a ‘sound basic knowledge of the RAF.

The I.T.W. syllabus included such things as:

Aircraft recognition
Air reconnaissance
Armaments – “To introduce cadets to the use of firearms and the precautions necessary for their safe handling”
Engines
Instruments
Meteorology
Navigation
Principles of flight
Signals

Along with other trainees Bob would have been issued with his ‘War Service uniform’ (“Battledress”) and, later in the course, with flying clothing, which was needed for training purposes.

This included:

Helmet, with oxygen and communication mask
Goggles
Flying suit
Mae West (life jacket)
Parachute harness

Trainees were assessed throughout the course and examinations had to be passed prior to further posting. Bob successfully completed the course and his next posting was an attachment to RAF Wrexham (from the 8th to the 15th April 1944) but it is not clear why, especially as RAF Wrexhamwas used for night fighter training.

Bob married Vera Stephenson in St James Church, now Grimsby Minster, on the 19th April 1944, about a year after it had been badly damaged by a German bomb and 4 days after returning to Newquay from Wrexham.

May 1944 (exact date not known)

Having completed his I.T.W. training and attachment to RAF Wrexham Bob was posted to No. 5 S.o.T.T. (School of Technical Training) at RAF Locking near Weston-super-Mare where he carried out the first phase of his ‘trade’ training as a Flight Engineer. This phase consisted of ten weeks of ‘preliminary’ training on airframes, engines, carburettors, electrics, instruments, hydraulics and propellers. This was followed by one week’s leave.

12th July 1944

He was posted to No. 4 S.of T.T. at RAF St Athan in Glamorgan, S. Wales to complete the second and third phases of his flight engineer training. Phase 2 consisted of 7 weeks of ‘intermediate’ training in engines, airframes, hydraulics, propellers, instruments and electrics, followed by one week’s leave. Having completed this phase of the course Bob was reclassified on the 1st of September as Aircraftsman Second Class (AC2) grade B. His pay would have increased from 3 shillings a day to 5 shillings a day (from 15p to 25p).

The final phase consisted of 7 weeks ‘advanced’ training on a specific service type aircraft and included a week at the factory of an aircraft manufacturer (‘Makers Course’) but there is no record of this in Bob’s service record. This was followed by a week of written and oral exams.

13th November 1944

Having successfully completed the course and passed his exams Bob attended a ‘passing out’ parade where he was presented with his Flight Engineer’s brevet and promoted to the rank of Sergeant, the minimum rank for aircrew. His pay was increased to 12 shillings (60p) a day. If Bob had achieved a mark of 70% or more in the exams then he would have been considered for a commission – his mark was 66.1%.

5th November 1944

The final step in Bob’s training involved a posting to 1669 Heavy Conversion Unit (H.C.U.) at RAF Langar on the Notts/Leicestershire border where he would be trained as part of a seven-man crew on a Lancaster bomber

Normally the flight engineer was posted to the H.C.U. a few weeks before the established crew so that he could get some flight training in. Bob ‘crewed up’ some time in late December but his Log Book shows that he didn’t fly with his pilot Bill Mallon, and presumably the rest of his crew, until the end of January.

His first three flights as a trainee flight engineer in a Lancaster bomber on the 17th, 18th and 21st of December 1944 were with pilot S/L Alban Chipling. Among the exercises they carried out were 3-engine landings, training which would prove invaluable on the 27th March 1945 when my dad’s aircraft lost an engine to flak on a daylight raid on Hamm in Germany.

Shortly afterwards S/L Chipling was transferred to RAF Hullavington, near Chippenham, where, after a distinguished flying career and only a couple of weeks before the end of the war in Europe, he lost his life in what appears to have been a tragic accident.

Bob had a total of just 59 hours flying time, 36 hours daylight and 23 hours night flying, between mid-December and the end of February and only 35 hours of this were ‘solo’ flights with his crew. Pilots obviously had more flying hours in training, though nowhere near the number required in peacetime.

The training schedule involved:

Familiarisation with the aircraft
Circuits and landings
Bombing practice
Fighter affiliation
Cross country flying

All entered in the log book as a series of numbered exercises. These were often carried out with experienced instructors (normally crew who had completed an operational tour) and then repeated ‘solo’.

Whenever Bob climbed into the aircraft he would have with him his parachute and his emergency repair tool bag and before, during and after every flight he would have to complete a four page Flight Engineer Log.

Having successfully completed their H.C.U. training the crew were considered ready for operational duty. Bob was officially declared qualified as a Flight Engineer for the Lancaster Marks I and III with effect from 1st March 1945 and was immediately assigned to No. 72 Base which, as well as Langar, included the airfields RAF Bottesford and RAF Saltby.

6th March 1945

Four of the seven in Bob’s crew were from New Zealand so it was no surprise a few days later when they were posted to RAF Mepal in Cambridgeshire, the home of No. 75(NZ) Squadron, part of No. 3 Group, Bomber Command. This was an RAF squadron formed from the ‘New Zealand Squadron’ in 1940 when the N.Z. government made their airmen and aircraft available to the RAF to help with the war effort. It was one of the larger, 3-flight squadrons which, between 1943 and 1944 had about 35 crews. By 1945 it seems that the squadron was practically ‘double-manned’, with two crews per aircraft, which would explain why Bob and his crew, who were assigned to ‘B’ Flight, flew in several different aircraft during their tour.

Credit Vic Jay

My father, Robert Jay, was a Lancaster bomber flight engineer with No.75 (NZ) Squadron during the last few months of the war. He died at the age of just 55 in 1974 and in 2012 I decided to chronicle his war-time experiences for the benefit of the family members he was never to meet.

All I had was a few photographs, his log book and the name of his pilot and the original intention was to describe his training and the operations in which he took part.

Three years of research, the power of the internet and the generosity of numerous people have enabled me to publish so much more. I have been able to locate the families of all but one of his crew, four of them from New Zealand, and to tell some incredible stories of courage, sacrifice and disappointment.

The full story can be found here:
http://robertalfredjay.blogspot.co.uk

Left to right: Bob, sister Phyllis and brother Fred

Sgt. William Brodie McVicar

R.A.F. (Volunteer Reserve) – Service Number 655655

Based on research so far this is what I think happened to Uncle Willie, but as I explain, not all the information matches the sources.

He was lost on 16/17th August 1942 during a minelaying (codenamed – Gardening10) operation in an area of operations codenamed “Willows”9 which is between Cape Anconaia and the River Dievenowia. All the crew assumed dead when their Lancaster – Serial Number R5509 – 207 Squadron designation EM-G – was shot down by Major Gunther Radusch6 the Commander of Night Fighter Group II./NJG 3 at 02:42 in the morning of 17th August over Sonderborg, Denmark.

The other Lancaster from 207 Squadron lost that night was also shot down by Major Radusch at 02:56 which is confirmed by the lone survivor who bailed out and was taken ashore at Esbjerg on the west coast of Denmark. This corroborates the claim by Major Radusch that he shot down two bombers that night. As they were within 14 minutes of each other we can assume that they were roughly in the same area – that is over or near Denmark.

Based on timings we can conclude that both bombers had completed their missions and were intercepted on their return flights. The Lancasters took off at about 21:00 hours (9 p.m.) from Bottesford (near Grantham). The distance to “Willows” (one of the furthest targets in N.W. Poland) was about 600 miles. The Lancaster’s cruising speed with a bomb load was approximately 180 m.p.h..They would have arrived at the target area at about 1 a.m. on the 17th August. Once they had confirmed their position they then would have to descend to 200 feet12 to drop their mines and then climb back to altitude maybe taking 30 minutes. After this they would head back home. It is about 150 miles to Denmark so they would arrive somewhere between 2 and 3 a.m..
I assume that the German radar would have picked them up and the ground stations would vector the night fighter on to the bombers. The night fighter would then visually acquire the targets and shoot them down.

As described in “The Avro Lancaster” Pg 51 “. . a minelaying operation – often it must be said, a long flight to the Baltic – would be allocated to a freshman crew. Many a crew would testify that these “Gardening” flights were as difficult as many a subsequent bombing operation, for the minelayers flew out individually to their dropping point, which was not in any way marked, and the sorties, performed singly, were particularly vulnerable to the attention of prowling night fighters. The skill of every crew member in conditions of prolonged isolation, discomfort and danger were thus tested to the full.

Lancaster EM-G -R5509 was involved in the following raids and I am assuming was crewed by Uncle Willie. (from The Avro Lancaster pg. 333 and 77). We will need his Service Record to find if he was involved in any other missions before these.

1. 25/26th June 1942 – Bremen – northern port of Germany targeting Focke-Wulf factories
2. 27/28th June 1942 – Bremen
3. 29/30th June 1942 – Bremen
4. 12/13th August 1942 – Mainz

Research issues.

Areas of Operations.

The very first research based on the Bomber Command Diaries (by Martin Middlebrook) states that on the:
“16/17 August 1942 Minelaying: 56 aircraft to the Frisian Islands. 2 Lancasters lost.”

However, the 207 Squadron rafinfo Website8 says:
“Then came what turned out to be 207 Squadron’s final, and sad, mission from Bottesford, when six Lancasters took off on 16 August to drop mines in areas Willow and Geranium.”

The “Willows” and “Geranium” areas are not the Frisian Islands. Maybe the other aircraft on the operation went to the Frisian Islands or other areas.

There is also a conflict with these operational areas where the Bottesford History3 gives the following; Willows – Kiel Bay and Geraniums – Kattegat, whereas the Bomber Command Minelaying Area Codes gives Willows as Arcona to River Dievenow and Geraniums as Swinemunde (now called ?winouj?cie which is between Arcona and Dievenow).

From the 3. http://www.bottesfordhistory.org.uk/documents/App_2.pdf

ROYAL AIR FORCE BOMBER COMMAND, 1942-1945.4

part of “CARR F (SQUADRON LEADER)” (photographs) Made by: No. 207 Squadron RAF 1942-06
Two Avro Lancaster B Mk Is, R5509 ‘EM-G’ and R5570 ‘EM-F’, of No. 207 Squadron RAF based at Bottesford, Linclonshire, in flight. Both aircraft were eventually lost on operations, R5509 while minelaying in the Baltic on 17 August 1942, and R5570 which…

1. http://www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/aug42.html – also Bomber Command Diaries.

16/17 August 1942

Minelaying: 56 aircraft to the Frisian Islands. 2 Lancasters lost.

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Bottesford

RAF Station Bottesford is a former World War II airfield on the Leicestershire–Lincolnshire county border in England. The airfield is located approximately 11 miles (18 km) east-northeast of Radcliffe on Trent; about 107 miles (172 km) north-northwest of London.

The airfield was opened as a Bomber Command station in No. 5 Group area during the autumn of 1941, with No. 207 Squadron moving in with its troublesome Avro Manchesters during November. However because of continual difficulties experienced with their Vulture engines. operations were frequently curtailed, but in March 1942 the squadron was able to step up its bombing raids onGermany when it became one of the first to receive the new Avro Lancaster in March 1942.

No. 207 left in September 1942 for RAF Langar and in November a new Australian manned squadron, No. 467, arrived in November 1942 commencing operations on the night of 2/3 January 1943.

3. http://www.bottesfordhistory.org.uk/documents/App_2.pdf

This is a pdf file of 207 Squadron operations from 23rd November 1941 through to 10th March 1945.

4. http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections

This is the link for the pictures of Lancaster EM-G.

5. http://www.hellzapoppin.demon.co.uk/mines.htm

List of Bomber Command Minelaying Area Codes 1940 – 1945.

6. http://www.luftwaffe.cz/radusch.html

Claim by Major Gunther Radusch of 2 RAF Halifax Bombers shot down on night of 16/17 August 1942.

No	Date	Time	A/c Type	Unit	Location / Comments
1	22.4.1937	–	I-15	2./J 88	Spain
2	10.4.1941	3:00	Wellington	I./NJG 3	2km SW Papenburg
3	27.2.1942	0:55	Wellington	II./NJG 3	W Westerland
4	26.4.1942	2:08	Stirling	II./NJG 3	S Schelde Estuary
5	28.4.1942	1:05	Stirling	II./NJG 3	Romo
6	29.4.1942	2:18	Wellington	II./NJG 3	–
7	17.8.1942	2:42	Halifax	II./NJG 3	Sonderborg
8	17.8.1942	2:56	Halifax	II./NJG 3	866 7O1
9	22.9.1942	1:01	Wellington	II./NJG 3	18km W Blidsel

I am assuming he misidentified the aircraft. The Halifax and the Lancaster were very similar and at night it would be easy to make a mistake.

Major Radusch was the Commander of II Group of Nightfighter Wing NJG 3.

Nachtjagdgeschwader 3 – II. Gruppe: Gruppenkommandeure:

Hptm Günther Radusch, 3.10.41 – 1.8.43

http://www.ww2.dk/air/njagd/njg3.htm also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachtjagdgeschwader_3

Night fighter group Nachtjagdgeschwader 3 was stationed at Wittmundhafen 3.42 to 4.44 which happens to be in Northern Germany near the Frisian Islands and, I assume, must have covered Denmark as an operational area.

They operated the twin engine Messerschmitt Bf 110 night fighter at this time.

7. http://www.flensted.eu.com/194246.shtml

Lancaster I R5616 crashed in the tidal area south of the island of Mandø 17/8-1942.

The aircraft belonged to RAF 207 Sqn. and was coded EM-J.
T/O 21:00 Bottesford. OP: Gardening Geranium.

At 02:58 Lancaster R5616 was attacked by a German night fighter piloted by Major Günther Radusch of Stab II./ NJG 3 and crashed burning in the tidal area 200 metres south of the Island of Mandø.

8. http://www.207squadron.rafinfo.org.uk/r5616.htm

207 Squadron Royal Air Force Association – Lancaster R5616 EM-J

This aircraft took off from RAF Bottesford at 2100 on 16th August 1942 for mine laying duties in the Kattegat coastal area of Denmark code named Geraniums. It crashed in the sea SSW of Mano (Fano) Island.

Pilot	P/O Anthony Jeaffreson SOUTHWELL RAF(VR)
Flight Engineer	Sgt Jack READ RAF(VR)
Observer	F/O Dennis John QUINLAN RCAF
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner	F/O Wilfrid Milton EDMONDS RAAF
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner	Sgt Robert ROBSON RAF(VR)
Air Gunner (Mid Upper Turret)	Sgt Thomas DOUGLAS RAF
Air Gunner (Rear Turret)	F/Sgt John Andrew McLEAN RCAF

All except Jack Read were killed. They were buried on 22 August in Fourfelt Cemetery, Esbjerg, Denmark. Sgt Jack Read was made POW and was in Stalag Luft III, prisoner no.42821.

The Squadron History ALWAYS PREPARED says: “Then came what turned out to be 207 Squadron’s final, and sad, mission from Bottesford, when six Lancasters took off on 16 August to drop mines in areas Willow and Geranium. Two failed to return: R5616 EM:J piloted by P/O AJ Southwell which crashed into the sea off Fano Island, Denmark, and R5509 EM:G with F/Sgt NJ Sutherland and crew, which was also thought to have come down in the sea. A Danish newspaper Nationaltidende report next day stated that a British aircraft had been shot down by a fighter and had crashed to the South of Fano, four of the crew being dead and the fifth brought ashore injured. This was Sgt J Read, flight engineer of R5616, who survived to be captured.”

JACK READ’S POW LOG (from the RAF ExPOW website)

QUINLAN CORRESPONDENCE & PHOTOS WEB PAGES (from the Canadian Letters & Images Project website)

9. Bomber Command Minelaying Area Codes 1940 – 19455

Below is a table with a list of the codes given to sea lanes and areas that Bomber Command dropped mines in. The codeword for a mining operation was “Gardening”, and the area codes used generally followed a horticultural theme, although there were a few exceptions, as can be seem from the list below. We are sure that this list is probably by no means exhaustive, and if anyone can add anything to it, please email us (please replace the “AT” with an “@” before sending your email) with details. The codes are listed alphabetically below, working down the left hand column first, and then down the right hand column. The codeword used is shown first, with the area or lane name following.

Anemones – Le Havre	Melon – Kiel Canal
Artichokes – Lorient	Mullet – Spezia
Asparagus – Green Belt	Mussels – Terschilling Gat
Barnacle – Zeebrugge	Nasturtiums – The Sound
Beech – St Nazaire	Nectarines – Friesan Islands
Bottle – Haugesund	Newt – Maas and Scheldt
Broccoli – Great Belt	Onions – Oslo
Carrots – Little Belt	Oysters – Rotterdam
Cinnamon – La Rochelle	Prawns – Calais
Cypress – Dunkirk	Privet – Danzig
Daffodil – The Sound	Pumpkins – Great Belt
Deodar – Bordeaux	Quinces – Great Belt / Kiel Bay
Dewberry – Bologne	Radishes – Kiel Bay
Eglantine – Heligoland Approaches	Rosemary – Heligoland
Elderberry – Bayonne	Scallops – Rouen
Endives – Little Belt	Silverthorn – Kattegat Areas
Flounder – Maas and Scheldt	Sweet Peas – Rostock and Arcone Light
Forget-me-Nots – Kiel Canal	Tangerine – Pillau
Furze – St. Jean du Luz	Tomato – Oslo Fjord Approaches
Hawthorn – Esbjerg Approaches	Trefoils – Texal (South)
Hollyhock – Travemunde	Turbot – Ostende
Hyacinth – St. Malo	Undergrowth – Kattegat
Geranium – Swinemunde	Verbena – Copenhagen Approaches
Gorse – Quiberon	Vine Leaves – Dieppe
Greengage – Cherbourg	Wallflowers – Kiel Bay
Jasmine – Travemunde	Welks – Zuider Zee
Jellyfish – Brest	Willows – Arcona to River Dievenow
Juniper – Antwerp	Xeranthemums – River Jade
Krauts – Lim Fjord	Yams – Heligoland Approaches
Lettuces – Kiel Canal	Yewtree – Kattegat
Limpets – Den Helder	Zinneas – River Jade

Operational Areas. The map below shows the general area of Kiel with the “Willows” operational area to the eastern side starting near Sassintz and stretching down to east of Swinoujscie (Swinemunde) at the mouth of the Oder River system. The Frisian Islands are to the west stretching along the Dutch, German and Danish coasts. The Kattegat is the straight between Denmark and Sweden at the centre top of the map. On the west coast of Denmark half way down is Esbjerg where the other Lancaster was lost and one of the crew rescued.

Willows – Arcona to River Dievenow.

Arcona – Cape Arkona (German: Kap Arkona) is a 45-metre-high cape on the island of Rügen inMecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It forms the tip of the Wittow peninsula, just a few kilometres north of the Jasmund National Park. The protected landscape of Cape Arkona, together with the fishing village of Vitt, belongs to the municipality of Putgarten.

River Dievenow

Dievenow, the German and pre-1945 name of the Dziwna strait

Dievenow or Berg-Dievenow, the German and pre-1945 names of Dziwnów

Wald-Dievenow or Klein Dievenow, the German and pre-1945 names of Dziwnówek

Ref Wiki.

10. Gardening was the mining of ports, canals, rivers and seaways with a payload of 6 x 1,850 lb parachute mines. The mines were codenamed “VEGETABLES”.

11. Lancaster Crew.

The Lancaster had a crew of seven.

1. Pilot

Seated on the left hand side of the cockpit. There was no Co-Pilot.

2. Flight Engineer

Seated next to the pilot on a folding seat called a dicky seat.

3. Navigator

Seated at a table facing to the port (left) of the aircraft and directly behind the pilot and flight engineer.

(See below for a picture of this position).

4. Bomb Aimer

Seated when operating the front gun turret, but positioned in a laying position when directing the pilot on to the aiming point prior to releasing the bomb load.

5. Wireless Operator

Seated facing forward and directly beside the navigator.

6. Mid-Upper Gunner

Seated in the mid upper turret, which was also in the unheated section of the fuselage.

7. Rear Gunner

“Tail End Charlie” seated in the rear turret in an unheated and isolated position. Most rear gunners, once in their turrets, did not see another member of the crew until the aircraft returned to base, sometimes 10 hours after departing.

In 1942 the Navigator relied on dead-reckoning and visual aids. There were no electronics available to help. He would sit behind a curtain fitted to allow him to use light to work. This would be so that on a night flight the light would not show and give away the aircraft position. His position faced to port with a chart table in front of him. An instrument panel showing the airspeed, altitude, and other information required for navigation was mounted on the side of the fuselage above the chart table.

Above the wireless operator was an astrodome, a clear plastic bubble, which the navigator could use for celestial navigation.

Compared with other contemporary aircraft, the Lancaster was not an easy aircraft to escape from; in a Halifax, 25% of downed aircrew bailed out successfully, and in American bombers (albeit in daylight raids) it was as high as a 50% success rate while only 15% of the Lancaster crew were able to bail out.[

12. The Avro Lancaster – Francis K. Mason – pg. 73.

13. Ages of the aircrew.

Interestingly the crew seemed relatively old. Average age in Bomber Command was 22.

F/Sgt N J Sutherland – 30
Sgt A M Craig – 22
Sgt W B McVicar – 27
Sgt A H McKenzie – 31
Sgt S Spencer – 28
Sgt J McArthur – 28
Sgt A Roddam – 29

Uncle Willie is commemorated at the Air Forces Memorial, Runnymede – Panel 89.

Flt. Lt. Norman James Eley, RAFVR

An occasion which remains vividly with me to this day occurred on 30th. April 1945.

Piloting a Lancaster bomber with the rest of 514 Squadron we went unarmed and at low level to Rotterdam in Holland whilst the German army was still in occupation. The Dutch people were by this time starving and relied only on eating tulip bulbs, leaves, flowers, berries and scraps found in garbage. Death by starvation was a daily occurrence..

We made several runs over the city at low level and finally dropped several panniers of food into the main square. .One could see the Dutch people waving. with happy smiling faces. An incredible sight never to be forgotten. Two days later we carried out a similar operation over The Hague. I sometimes wonder if any surviving Dutch people occasionally gaze skywards today remembering the sounds of our Lancasters merlin engines so often heard by them during WW2 and think about those terrible times..

I’m lucky, I’m still around in February 2016.
Good luck to all at IBCC. Jim Eley.

S/Ldr Kenneth George Bickers DFC

S/Ldr Kenneth George Bickers DFC
103 Squadron RAF Elsham Wolds
Avro Lancaster Bomber ME665 PM-C
(Lost night of 24/25 March 1944 over Berlin)

On 27 March 2015 we stood in a quiet field on the edge of a small forest near the village of Luckenwalde , about 30 kilometres south of Berlin , and placed a small wooden cross in memory of Kenneth Bickers and the six crew of his Lancaster who were shot down and killed on the night of 24/25 March 1944. Only three of the bodies were discovered, and they lie buried in the Berlin War Cemetery.
A Poppy Cross was placed on each Grave side in Respect. A very emotional moment in time.

To explain how my father and I came to be here with our new German friends exactly seventy-one years after that tragic event we need perhaps to explain Ken’s story. Ken was my Father’s brother, and we had come to try and find his final resting place.

Kenneth Bickers grew up in Southampton in the West End district of the City, one of five children born to his parents James and Gertrude Bickers. Ken’s father James had run away to Argentina at the age of just fifteen, but returned in order to fight in the First World War – he survived but his brother Edward was not so lucky and was killed on the Somme just three months before the end of the war at the age of nineteen.

Ken’s father was a hard-working man who was not afraid to impose himself on his young family if the need arose, but he always did his best to provide and the family lived in a small rented semi-detached house not far from the centre of Southampton – however these were the Thirties in the years leading up to the Second World War, there was no bathroom, no inside toilet and no central heating, times were hard and about to become a lot harder.

Ken studied at Bitterne Park Boys School, was very popular amongst his peers, and rose to become Head Boy – in fact his Headmaster wrote of him ‘I cannot speak too highly of this boy’s character – he has been my Head Prefect for 18 months and has done excellently, he is self-reliant, steady and most reliable’.

The Second World War broke out when Ken was just seventeen, and he was keen to get involved. As he was under age for active service he joined the Royal Artillery and trained in mechanics and searchlight operations. A highlight came when he was commended and promoted to Corporal having taken control of a searchlight at the end of Hythe Pier in Southampton during the first Blitz in November 1940.

However Ken was not satisfied with being in the Royal Artillery, and decided that he wanted to join the RAF to make a more meaningful contribution, so he switched codes in 1941 and trained to be a pilot in Terrell , Texas , USA , returning to England after 6 months to complete his training and commence operations as a Pilot Officer in 1943. His first sortie from RAF Elsham Wolds with 103 Squadron was on 7 February 1943 attacking the German-held French port of Lorient, and by the beginning of April he had already flown 15 sorties attacking amongst others Wilhelmshaven, Nuremburg, Bremen, Cologne and Berlin.

In April 1943 Ken was awarded an immediate DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross) – the entry in the London Gazette of 30 April 1943 describes Ken’s heroic actions on the night of 9 April:

‘One night in April 1943, Flight Lieutenant Bickers captained an aircraft detailed to attach Duisberg. During the homeward flight , whilst over enemy territory, the aircraft was attacked by an enemy fighter. The first burst of fire from the attacker killed the rear gunner, severely wounded the mid-upper gunner and set the rear turret on fire. For twenty minutes the enemy aircraft continued its attacks and only the skilful evading tactics employed by Flight Lieutenant Bickers prevented the bomber from being shot down. The elevator trimming gear was put out of action, the engine controls were damaged, the wireless apparatus and the hydraulic system were rendered unserviceable. Many instruments were destroyed while one of the port petrol tanks was pierced , causing its contents to leak away. In spite of the tremendous odds, Flight Lieutenant Bickers, displaying superb airmanship, flew the badly damaged aircraft to an airfield in this country where he effected a successful crash landing. In the face of a most perilous situation this officer displayed courage, skill and fortitude of a high order.’

Ken came to the end of his first tour of operations on 29 May 1943, having successfully completed 30 sorties over enemy territory in just under three months. He was still only 20 years old.

Whilst based near Leicester he had met a girl called Joan whom he had fallen for, and plans were made for them to get married on April 5 1944. In the meantime on 23 November 1943 Ken was accompanied by his parents and Joan to Buckingham Palace to receive his DFC from King George VI.

Once a pilot had completed a tour of operations there was no obligation to go back and put yourself in the front line again. It was considered that you ‘had done your bit’ and you were able to continue in service by training other aircrews.

However Ken decided to go back, in spite of his near miss as described above when attacked over Germany and despite being engaged to be married. It is not clear from the surviving papers why he took this decision, but reading between the lines it can be surmised that the ‘exhilaration’ of battle and the needs of the country triumphed over any regard for personal safety that may have given him pause for thought. There is a surviving letter written to his parents in February 1944 in which he writes:

‘..as soon as I received news that we were on our way back (to recommence attacks on Germany) I nipped smartly down to Leicester to see Joan – she’s still going to marry me at Easter and wouldn’t hear of any postponement. I’m glad!’

From this it is possible to gather that Ken was well aware of the risk he was taking, but the chance to do what he could for his country in its hour of need was the stronger pull, and tragically it would mean that he would not marry Joan as planned on 5 April.

Having moved around various air bases whilst doing further training Ken returned to RAF Elsham Wolds with 103 Squadron in February 1943. His surviving letters home are a mixture of describing the conditions under which he is living (‘..all my kit dirty and damp, the temperature is freezing, not a single clean handkerchief to my name..’) , and making plans for his forthcoming wedding to Joan (..’Joan gave me the job of deciding where to go on honeymoon, was supposed to have come to a decision last week but haven’t had a real opportunity to think’..).

A surviving letter written on 12 March to his parents indicates that although operations have not yet been recommenced he is expecting to go ‘any moment now’. He comments ‘I have a very good crew and a very good aircraft. The aircraft C Charlie is brand new, it took some wrangling, but we got it in the end!’ However it is also apparent that morale is low as Ken comments that ‘the squadron has completely changed, the old squadron spirit is almost entirely non-existent….we haven’t managed to make ourselves very popular….the Wing Commander and I don’t see eye to eye on a number of things..’

Ken, now newly promoted to Squadron Leader, recommenced bombing operations on Wednesday 15 March with an attack on Stuttgart – his logbook records it as a ‘quiet trip’. His last letter home was written on Friday 17 March – in it the preparations for his forthcoming marriage on 5 April are very much to the fore – he implores his Father to come to the wedding (..’how about taking some of your hard-earned summer holidays and coming along with Mum..’) and casually mentions his raid on Stuttgart (..’Twas a long stooge (sic) but an uneventful one for us – that’s how I like ’em !’). He ends the letter ‘…Well I think I had better close so cheerio for now. My love to Bunty (his small sister) and God Bless you all. Your loving Son , Ken.’

On Wednesday 22 March Ken’s logbook records a sortie to Frankfurt, again recorded as a ‘quiet trip’. There are no further entries.

Ken and his crew, F/O Plummer, F/O Tombs, F/O Bell, F/S Wadsworth, F/S Comer and F/S Cannon, took off on what was to be their final sortie on Friday 24 March 1944 to attack Berlin. The operation to Berlin on 24/25 March 1944 was the final raid of The Battle of Berlin and the last large-scale attack on the city by Bomber Command. Forty-four Lancasters and twenty eight Halifaxes were lost from the force, 8.9% of the total.

The official entry for Ken’s last flight appears in Bomber Command Losses, volume 5 1944, page 131 by William Chorley:

‘Homebound, came down 2km east of Luckenwalde and exploded with great force. Three lie in Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery and four are commerorated on the Runnymede Memorial. S/L Bickers was on the third sortie of his second tour. At 21, he was one of the youngest flight commanders to be killed in Bomber Command during 1944.

There may be no finer epitaph to Ken than that contained in Don Charlwood’s gripping first-hand account of life as a Bomber Command pilot, ‘No Moon Tonight’, in which the author describes coming across Ken shortly after his DFC exploits detailed above:

‘In the morning I heard that Bickers’ crew had had a shaky do the night before. The rear gunner had been killed and for ‘Bick’ himself there was talk of an immediate DFC. Their plane had been attacked by fighters and damaged beyond belief. In the crew room ‘Bick’ was being congratulated. To everyone he gave the same brief answer, ‘It was a crew show. The way they stuck together got us back.’

‘Looking at Bickers, I felt that in him our last seven months were typified. For a Flight Lieutenant he was more than usually young. His face was finely formed and unsmiling; his eyes direct. And in his eyes was that enigmatical ops expression I had noticed so often before. I wondered what he had been before the war. I thought of him as a bank clerk, university student, even a schoolboy, but each was poles removed from the Bickers before me.’

‘It was as though he had been created to wear the battered ops cap; the battle dress with its collar whistle; the white ops sweater; to be a man to whom years did not apply. But most of all, it was as though he had been created for this very hour, to stand in this drab room of many memories hearing the congratulations of his fellows.’

2. The Search

My father (Ken’s younger brother by four years) has always been immensely affected by Ken’s death – indeed my own middle name is Kenneth in tribute. However it has only been in the last few years since the death of my Mother that I have become acutely aware of just how much he has been affected, and one day earlier this year whilst were discussing the subject, I realised that the only way for him (and me now) to try and find some peace would be to visit Luckenwalde and see if we could find the exact spot where Ken’s Lancaster had come down, we had no clues, other than the statement from the official record of Bomber Command Losses stated above, but by visiting we would at least gain some sense of time and place and how it all must have happened.

My Father was sceptical, worrying about the reaction of the local populace, but eventually I managed to persuade him to go, and I booked the flights from Liverpool to Berlin. It was only after I had booked them that I realised with amazement that the date of our flight to Berlin was 24 March 2015 – exactly seventy-one years to the day of Ken’s fateful flight. We took this as a sign that perhaps what we were doing had merit after all, and upon arriving in Berlin we picked up our hire car and drove to our hotel in preparation for the search ahead.

The next day we drove initially to Luckenwalde, a small friendly town about twenty kilometres south of Berlin near where Ken’s plane came down as described above. We decided to visit the local museum to see if we could find any clues as to the actual crash site, and eventually we were ushered upstairs to meet the Curator, a Herr Schmidt, not your average looking Curator it has to be said, looking very hippy-dippy with Panama hat, pony-tail and goatee beard (!), and also with no English, but he did everything he could to help, digging out old photos of the time showing the aftermath of the bombing raids and even producing a logbook that had noted in it details of all the bombing raids in the area. Ken’s raid was there right enough, but no details were available of the actual crash site, so we adjourned for a delightful German coffee and ice-cream next door and decided on our next move.

We knew that the Lancaster had come down somewhere between Luckenwalde and the neighbouring much smaller village of Janickendorf, so we determined to drive to Janickendorf to see if there was any visible evidence of the dreadful event all those years ago – unlikely but we had a lot of time on our hands .

The village of Janickendorf is very spread out, and to drive through it takes a good three or four minutes – at the far end is an industrial estate and next door is an overgrown piece of land full of bumps and hillocks, and we surmised not unreasonably that the undulations could well have been caused by a plane crash, so we decided to lay a cross in memory of Ken and his crew at this location, and set off to drive back to our hotel.

However I think we were both feeling frustrated by the fact that we didn’t know for sure that we had found the actual crash site, and on our way out of the far end of the village I happened to glance to my right and saw a gentleman walking up a side road towards the main road we were driving along, so I suddenly said to my Father ‘I’m going to stop and see if he might know something’ , pulled over about a hundred yards further along the road and got out to walk back to talk to him. The fact that I knew only about a dozen words of German wasn’t going to put me off !

By the time I got back to the gentleman he had crossed the road to the other side, and was talking to two other people, but I looked to my left and I saw a quaint building with the word ‘Museum’ (or the German equivalent !) on it – the barn door was open, and at that exact moment a lady emerged – so I changed tack and walked over to the lady, intercepting her as she was about to close for the day. I asked if she spoke English, and as I did so I glanced into the museum – to my utter shock there in front of me was a piece of the framework from Ken’s Lancaster, together with a list of him and his crew, and depictions of what the aircrew would have been wearing at the time. I think my reaction and the way I was looking at the artefacts made the lady understand, because she then beckoned to the original gentleman I had seen (who turned out to be her husband!) and called him over together with a young lady who was able to speak English, and suddenly all became clear. At this point my Father was still in the car, so I raced back up the road, opened the door and said words to the effect of, ‘I think we might have found the plane’.

My Father of course couldn’t believe it – when he walked into the museum for the first time and saw the piece from Ken’s Lancaster it was a very emotional moment. The German couple, Manfred and Gisela Bolke, welcomed us with open arms, and Julia Horn (the young lady) translated. We were offered tea and cake in the Museum, and gradually our story unfolded, much to the amazement of our German hosts who could not have been more welcoming and understanding.

During our conversation, Manfred said that there was a Herr Kruger that he would like us to meet – when Julia explained that this other gentleman was the boy who as a fifteen year old had found the remains of the crashed Lancaster we were stunned, and agreed to come back on the morning of our departure back to Liverpool to Manfred and Gisela’s house to meet Herr Kruger from where he would take us to the actual crash site.

So the next morning we returned to meet Herr Kruger at Manfred and Gisela’s house which is located just over the road from their private museum. On this occasion Manfred and Gisela’s grand-daughter Christina joined us in order to be able to translate which she did incredibly well in spite of a lot of technical jargon !

Herr Kruger is now eighty-six years old but he was able to recall the events of that day as if they had happened yesterday. After the initial introductions and a brief discussion Herr Kruger said he would take us to the crash site, and we all got into Manfred’s car (Julia now having rejoined us to take over translating duties from Christina) and drove about a kilometre out of the village (in the opposite direction to where we had laid the first cross) and turned right up a small narrow lane. At the top of the lane we turned right again and entered a wooded area, dense with trees on both sides, the lane became ever bumpier until eventually after about five minutes Herr Kruger asked us to stop.

We got out of the car and with Julia translating Herr Kruger told us his story. He described how as a fifteen year old at six o’clock in the morning he and his ten year old sister had come to the crash site where we were standing to see what had happened. He pointed to the ground and told us that it was at this exact spot that he had found the dead body of a British airman, and said that he was struck by the fact that a lot of his clothing had been torn off but how clean his socks were. He was able to show the exact angle at which the body was lying (this body would either have been Air Gunner Tombs or Air Gunner Cannon, both of whom are buried at the Berlin War Cemetery).

Of course at this point we were reeling with the amount of information that he was telling us, because he was making it all so real. Herr Kruger then requested that we get back in the car, and we drove a further five hundred yards or so before getting out once again. This time we walked through the trees and dense bracken to the edge of a vast field which was sewn with crops. It was here, said Herr Kruger, that he found a second body, and heart-rendingly and with great emotion he said he felt that this airman may still have been alive when he hit the ground, as there was evidence of the soil having been disturbed by the movements of one of his feet, and in his hand was a photograph of his wife and children which he must have taken out of his wallet to look at before he died (this body was probably that of Flight Engineer Wadsworth).

Herr Kruger pointed to the vast open expanse of the field and told us that this was where the bulk of the Lancaster had hit the ground. He was able to show us a photograph that he had taken of his sister in front of what looks like one of the propeller sections. He had made it all so real, and we were so very grateful. My Father laid another cross at the foot of one of the trees nearest the field (no remains of the other four bodies including Ken were ever found) and we all stood together, united in our remembrance and sadness for what had occurred here seventy-one years ago.

We then repaired to Manfred and Gisela’s house where Gisela had prepared a delightful tea and cake, and we were able to have further conversations (Julia now having left us) by virtue of the Google translator which Gisela had set up on her laptop ! Herr Kruger had driven around sixty kilometres to be with us that morning, and we are indebted to him and of course to Manfred, Gisela, Julia and Christina for the wonderful welcome that they afforded to us, which bearing in mind we had arrived out of nowhere only two days previously was nothing short of incredible.

However the story didn’t finish there. Upon our return to England, again by the use of the Google translator and email I corresponded with Gisela, and suggested to her that we might like to come back at a later date with a metal detector to see if we could possibly find any further remnants belonging to the downed Lancaster or perhaps any personal possessions relating to the dead airmen. Gisela immediately wrote back and said that they already owned two metal detectors, had been in touch with the farmer for permission to search his land and they were going to do so in a week’s time ! Words can’t do justice to the way we felt about this.

A week or so later Gisela sent us some photographs of Manfred and a younger couple with their young son all fervently engaged in metal detecting on the field of the crash site – they had unearthed several mainly agricultural items but as yet nothing that could be said to be from the Lancaster. However more intriguingly Manfred had taken a photograph of a piece of rusted metal embedded halfway up a tree which looked as though it could have come from a plane as it was slighted rounded in appearance.

Ken’s Story Continued…
Once we had returned from Germany, we continued our correspondence with Manfred and Gisela via email, and it quickly became apparent that they were determined to help us as much as possible, not only in searching for any remnants of the lost aircraft and its crew, but also in taking full responsibility for planning and organising a dedicated memorial plaque in honour of the lost airmen.

One day a parcel arrived for my Father from Germany – contained within it were a small part of the Lancaster’s fuselage, and more poignantly a part of a leather boot – we were incredulous!

My Father and I asked Manfred and Gisela if it would be possible to install a memorial plaque at the crash site, and they immediately began making enquiries of the German authorities as to whether or not this was permissible. When the answer came back that it would not be possible, Manfred and Gisela nevertheless kindly agreed that a plaque could be put up in front of the museum in Janickendorf which is only about a kilometre away from the actual crash site.

Over the next few months the design for the plaque took shape, thanks to Karl Spath, a well-known designer from Luckenwalde, and as the project progressed it became apparent that it would be most appropriate to unveil the plaque on the anniversary of the Lancaster’s demise, 24 March 2016. The timetable was very tight, but the determination of Manfred, Gisela and Karl together with the help of many friends and neighbours knew no bounds, and on 22 March my Father, son and myself travelled to Germany for the unveiling of the plaque on 24 March.

In the meantime by chance we had been put in touch with the grandson of Norman Tombs, one of Ken’s crew members also killed on that fateful day. Mel Taylor and his daughter Rebecca met us at our hotel in Luckenwalde on the morning of the ceremony and we exchanged many fascinating stories about eachother’s families before proceeding to Janickendorf.

The ceremony itself was very moving, and wonderfully organised by Manfred and Gisela. A violinist played some very moving music, and short speeches were given by the Mayor of Nuthe-Urstromtal, Gisela and myself, and then the plaque was unveiled by Manfred and Karl, a very moving moment.

The eyewitness of the time, Herr Kruger, was once again with us and following the ceremony we travelled to the crash site where Herr Kruger was able once more to tell us what he had found on that March day back in 1944. His emotion and distress were evident to all and we are very grateful for his sincerely held memories.

We then paid our respects at the tree adjacent to the crash site where Manfred and Gisela had put up a portrait of Ken along with the remembrance cross that we had left on our previous visit.

A year to the day after first stumbling across Manfred and Gisela , a permanent monument to the fallen airmen now stands outside the museum in Janickendorf, thanks to the unswerving efforts of Manfred and Gisela themselves along with all of their colleagues. It has been a magnificent achievement by them and an emotional journey for us – we thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts.

Flight Sergeant David Wilson Inglis (1569642)

Served with No. 1 Group, 166 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command as a Rear Gunner from 18 May 1942, died in service 17 December 1943

Stationed at:

Tranent	Gladsmuir
Haddington	North Berwick
Drim	East Fortune
East Linton	Dunbar
Dalkeith	Lauder
Stow	Cockburnspath
Duns	Greenlaw
Earlston	Melrose
Galashiels	Prestonpans
GullaneEast	Reston
Peebles	Queensferry
Rosyth	Dunfermline
Port Seton	Eddleston
Burntisland	Kirkcaldy
Balerro	Berwick
Newcastle	Darlington
York	Doncaster
Barnetby	Brocklesby
Kirmington	Grimsby
Brigg	Scunthorpe
St Boswells

Serving on Lancaster Bomber JB639 – Crew at time of death

Arthur Edward Brown (170737) – Pilot
Henry Albert Williams (1801135) – Navigator
Charles George Thompson (1637596) – Flight Engineer
Norman Nowell Griffin (1396113) – Air Bomber
Leslie Dennis Perry (1324106) – Wireless Operator/Air Gunner
Edward Victor Smith (1811495) – Air Gunner
David Wilson Inglis (1569642) – Rear Gunner

This crew stationed at:

Edinburgh	Berwick
Newcastle	Darlington
York	Doncaster
Barnetby	Brocklesby
Kirmington	Grimsby
Brigg

Sgt David Inglis may have been a member of the crew of this Lancaster S for Sugar which is not confirmed at time of compilation of this memorial. (Newspaper cutting in his widow’s possession at the time and mentioned in her notes of his service).

S for Sugar crashed, then E for Embrace – 166 Squadron

Sergeant Inglis and all the above crew were killed upon returning from a night bombing raid on Berlin. They were part of a 498 aircraft force (including Lancasters and Mosquitoes) which set off from Kirmington at 16.20 hours on 16 December 1943. The route led directly to Berlin across Holland and Northern Germany. They were met by German fighters at the coast of Holland and further fighters were guided onto the bomber stream throughout the approach to the target. More fighters were waiting at the target where many combats took place. The bombers shook off the opposition on the return flight by taking a Northerly route over Denmark.

Lancaster JB639 successfully fulfilled their mission and returned to England where the weather was worse than forecast with low cloud base over high ground. They crashed at 23.35 hours on 16 December 1943 attempting to find the airfield near Little Walk Farm, Thornton Curtis, Lincolnshire, with the loss of all seven crew members. The squadrons of Nos. 1, 6 and 8 Groups were particularly badly affected by these adverse weather conditions– in total, 29 Lancasters either crashed or were abandoned when their crews parachuted. No. 1 Group, of which JB639 was a part, suffered the heaviest losses with 13 aircraft lost.

25 Lancasters were lost on the raid.

The bodies were taken to RAF Elsham Wolds, Lincolnshire, and buried in Brigg Cemetery, a small market town 10 miles South of Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire. Sergeant Inglis’ grave 181, Plot B.